Twitter as an Ecommerce Tool?

Twitter is growing daily with companies using it as an effective communications tool to share company news, special offers and raise brand awareness. Check out the article on Mashable! to read about the benefits of Twitter.

Excellent Social Media Glossary

Wondering what all this social media terminology actually means? I located this glossary today from a blog that I linked to from a blog that was in another blog that originated from a Google Alert! An example of the viral nature of blogs and links. Hopefully this will help demistify the terminology for you.

Do Not Turn Off the Flashlight

eMarketer is a great resource and they deliver daily emails linking to articles with rich data points. A great email was delivered today and here is a great quote that sums it up. “With the economy clouding the future, why throw away your flashlight when it could shine on intriguing consumer insights, hot technology trends and market opportunities?” Geoff Ramsey, CEO eMarketer.

I absolutely agree with him. Now is the time to hone in on the needs of the customer so we can retain them and keep them loyal to the brand and the products. Even using an online survey tool to reach out to your top 100 or top 5% customers in regards to repeat purchases will give you the most valuable insight to keep driving the  business through tough economic times.

Traci Metzger, Sr. Web Strategist

Reactivation

With inboxes receiving more and more emails on a daily basis, many companies are seeing a steady decrease in response to email messages. Customers who once loyally opened your emails on a regular basis are no longer responding. How can you get these customers who were once actively engaged with your brand re-engaged?

The first step is to segment these non-responders and get an understanding of the segment.

1. What do these non-responders have in common?

2. What drove response from these customers in the past?

3. Who is most likely to re-engage?

Once you’ve gotten a better understanding of your non-responders, you should develop a message strategy and test messages to determine the most successful strategy for reactivation. Once you’ve found a successful reactivation message, you can automate your reactivation program to ensure you are reaching out to non-responders on a regular basis.

Hilary Giesler, Sr. Web Strategist

7 Small Website Fixes to Boost ROI

The Omniture Testing Workbook is a great guide that was developed along with Forrester Research. The whitepaper outlines 7 quick fixes that can make an immediate impacdt on your bottom line.

1. Review your checkout process and remove any barriers to purchase easily.

2. Optimize your site for organic search enging rankings [sometimes this can take time to impact rankings depending on market]

3. Eliminate the fluff. Remove content that is not relevant to the visitors experience or ability to purchase.

4. Ensure your search results are accurate.

5. Evaluate your home page for cross sell opportunities.

6. Place links on the home page to drive customers to purchase if they do not want to browse online.

7. Test design and size of buttons to boost click-through rates on purchase/buy links.

These are refinements that can be implemented and measured for impact through analytics such as Omniture or Google Analytics.

Posted by: Traci Metzger, Sr. Web Strategist

Email Marketing – Simple Segmentation

In today’s economy, it is important to focus on the most cost efficient marketing tools to drive traffic and sales through your web site.  While I am a firm believer in multi-channel marketing, I believe that companies should put more emphasis on building relationships with existing customers before spending a lot of money trying to acquire new customers.  Most online retailers don’t spend enough time on their email marketing strategies.

The most successful email programs are those that create and send relevant messages to customers based on information gathered over time.  The first step to creating relevant email campaigns is gathering and analyzing data about email customers and segmenting the email database.  Segmentation can be minimal at the initial launch of the email program, but should be refined as the program matures and we gather more data.  The most basic segments are new vs. existing customers and buyer vs. non-buyer.

• New customers should be treated differently than customers that are already familiar with your company.
• New customers should receive emails that further educate them on your brand, products and web site.
• Buyers should receive messages that are tailored to them based on their previous purchases.  Email subscribers who have not yet purchased are your highest potential prospects.  Use this segment to test offers and product promos to determine the best message strategy for driving conversions.

There is a lot of opportunity for increased sales lying within your current email database.  Starting even the most basic segmentation plan should greatly improve performance of your email campaigns.

Web-only Channel Shows Highest Sales Increase

Internet Retailer posted a report yesterday featuring latest data analysis on the top 500 Internet Retailers. Check out the article. Have a great Thursday everyone!

Take care,

Traci

Valentine’s Day – A $14.7 Billion Dollar Holiday

Check out the spending trends for Valentine’s Day. Enjoy the day!

Shop.org Innovation Forum

I am currently at Shop.org’s Innovation Forum in Orlando, Florida. And it is cold in Florida AGAIN! Anyways, the economy is the focus of the conference – as it should be. Below are the key takeaways from conversations and speaker presentations so far at the forum.

• Avinash Kaushik, The Analytics Evangelist for Google, was a keynote speaker. When reviewing analytics, don’t keep reviewing and reporting on the top 10 keywords as they rarely change, dig in and find out what is not working and fix it.
• Bounce rates are a great data point as these are the people that would not even give you one click. Find out why.
• Google’s Ad Planner is so powerful to build an online media plan and instantly identify sites that fit your target audience.
• eBags.com increased conversion by adding product videos to the site.
• Bob Thacker, Sr. VP of Advertising and Marketing for Office Max said, “Look before you leap…then take the leap!” www.elfyourself.com is the top viral marketing campaign in online history. What he said that is most important, “Make news…not ads.”  The buzz that an ad campaign generates is where the ad value comes in generating potentially millions of dollars in ad equivalence.
• Mobile commerce is about a year away in terms of being more mainstream. But this is the year to plan for it.
• Social commerce, the combination of commerce and community is in its infancy yet revolutionizing buying online.

More takeaways to come….

Take care,

Traci

Video May Reduce Product Return Rates

A new report from eMarketer indicates the best is yet to come in terms of using video to sell products online, engage the visitor and educate customers about a brand or product. Or, just have fun through contests and instructional videos. I would have likely never read about how to make the perfect cup of tea. But, when we watched Cindi Bigelow tell us in a video posted on YouTube, I now always use cold tap water to make my tea!

Now is the time to begin incorporating video into your online marketing strategy.

Take care,

Traci